JOHN GROBLER, Rundu | Tuesday NAMIBIAN and Angolan security forces are carrying out illegal detentions and torturing prisoners in round-ups along their joint Kavango River border designed to crack down on Angolan rebels, local sources and human rights activists say. Namibian police refuse to confirm or deny the existence of Operation Eagle, and insist that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Cape Town | Tuesday THE African National Congress has accused the Democratic Alliance-led Western Cape government of using black Aids victims as guinea pigs by giving them “dangerous and toxic drugs” reminiscent of the biological warfare of the apartheid era. Saying the ANC’s propaganda machine had “seriously lost the plot”, the alliance hit […]

A NORTHERN Province welder who allegedly tried to slice his wife’s throat with an angle-grinder has been remanded in custody after failing to make bail. Samuel Munaka, 34, allegedly attacked his wife with an angle-grinder when he suspected she was cheating on him. – African Eye News Service

SEVERAL people were injured when Swaziland’s armed forces broke up anti-government protests in the capital, Mbabane, and in the industrial city of Manzini. Eyewitnesses said police and army officers disrupted a march on the king’s palace outside the capital led by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) with teargas and batons. – African Eye […]

ETHIOPIA and Eritrea’s foreign ministers have begun talks in the Algerian capital aimed at turning June ceasefire halting a two-year border war into a lasting peace agreement. Tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers from both sides, were been killed in the war, which has displaced more than 1.2 million people. – AFP

BRITISH business has won new powers to snoop on staff e-mails and telephone calls under a controversial law that will be closely watched overseas. The new law, which could develop into a protracted battle, gives bosses wide monitoring powers. The crux of the issue is whether workers have the right to expect privacy in the […]

SOUTH African information technology firm Datatec is reviewing the timing of the London listing of its Logical Holdings unit because of global volatility in new economy stocks. Datatec Marketing Director Johnathan Newman said Internet services group Logical would clarify its listing intentions when it presented its interim results on November 7. He reaffirmed that Datatec […]

A 267-carat diamond, whose owner was imprisoned for several weeks on suspicion that he had stolen it from the state, has been sold for $17.9m in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The owner, Alphonse Ngoyi Kasanji, said the diamond was sold to a German company. – Reuters

ALLAN SECCOMBE, Johannesburg | Tuesday A EUROPEAN Union official says she is ”fairly confident” EU inspectors will recommend lifting a ban on imports of South African meat, imposed after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak last month. An EU team will inspect the affected area in eastern KwaZulu-Natal and speak to national and provincial agriculture ministries later […]

THREE of the world’s biggest mining groups have announced an alliance with commodity trader Glencore International AG to set up global Internet marketplaces for trading commodities, starting with coal. Rio Tinto Plc/Ltd, Anglo American Plc, Billiton Plc and Swiss-based Glencore said they would join Internet firm Accel-KKR Company LLC to develop online marketplaces for trading […]